Iran in the news

Iran has been in the news a lot over the last several years but even people who faithfully read newspaper articles describing current events in Iran and it's relationship to the U.S. are probably uninformed about the country's history and culture. Last year I read a great book called THE SOUL OF IRAN: A NATION'S JOURNEY TO FREEDOM by Afshin Molavi. Often, histories of a country can read like textbooks, but I didn't find that to be the case with this book. Molavi has reported on Iran for Reuters and the Washington Post and went to Iran to get a clearer picture of the current situation there, not from government officials but from ordinary Iranians. What they have to say about their daily lives, their country and it's position in the world is fascinating. Molavi alternates their stories with chapters on Iran's rich history dating to pre-Islamic Persia.

Other well-reviewed books about Iran available at the library include PERSIAN MIRRORS: THE ELUSIVE FACE OF IRAN by Elaine Sciolino, HONEYMOON IN PURDAH: AN IRANIAN JOURNEY by Alison Wearing, and IRAN: A PEOPLE INTERRUPTED by Hamid Dabashi. Check out some of these great titles at your Racine Public Library.